Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the “Soul of Calypso“, which has influences of African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelt “sokah” by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper when reporting on the new music it was erroneously spelt “soca”; Lord Shorty confirmed the error but chose to leave it that way to avoid confusion. It is a genre of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s and developed into a range of styles during the 1980s and after. Soca was initially developed by Lord Shorty in an effort to revive traditional calypso, the popularity of which had been flagging amongst younger generations in Trinidad due to the rise in popularity of reggae from Jamaica and soul and funk from the United States. Soca is an offshoot of Calypso/Kaiso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks
Soca has evolved since the 1980s primarily through musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries, so not only from its birthplace Trinidad and Tobago but also from Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, the US and British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Belize. There have also been significant productions from artists in Venezuela, Canada, Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.[citation needed]
History
Soca began its development in the early 1970s and grew in popularity throughout that decade. Soca’s development as a musical genre included its fusion with Calypso, Chutney, Reggae, Zouk, Latin, Cadence and traditional West African rhythms.
A sound project started in 1970 at KH Studios in Trinidad to find a way to record the complex Calypso rhythm in a new multi-track era.
Musicians involved in the initiative were Robin Imamshah (guitar, project lead), Angus Nunez (bass), Errol Wise (drums), Vonrick Maynard (drums), Clarence James (percussion), Carl Henderson (keyboards) and David Boothman (strings). Some of the early songs recorded in 1972 at the KH Studios which benefited from this project were “Indrani” by Lord Shorty and “Calypso Zest” by Sensational Roots. Later came the Soca hits “Endless Vibrations” and “Sweet Music” by Lord Shorty, recorded in 1974 and 1975 respectively, and “Second Fiddle” by Ella Andall, recorded in 1975. In 1976, “Savage” by Maestro and “Trinidad Boogie” by Last Supper (composed by Robin Imamshah) also benefited from the improving multi-track recording technology at KH Studios.
Soca continues to incorporate contemporary music styles and trends. Bollywood films, Bhangra, the new Punjabi pop and Disco music in the United States have also experimented with Soca.
Lord Shorty
The “father” of Soca was a Trinidadian named Garfield Blackman, who rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1964 hit “Cloak and Dagger” and who adopted the name “Ras Shorty I” in the early 1980s. He started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre. A prolific musician, composer and innovator, Shorty experimented with fusing Calypso and elements of Indo-Caribbean music after 1965 before debuting “the Soul of Calypso”, Soca music, in the early 1970s.
Shorty was the first to define his music as “Soca” during 1975 when his hit song “Endless Vibrations” caused musical waves on radio stations and at parties and clubs – not just in his native Trinidad and Tobago, but also in cities like New York, Toronto and London. Soca was originally spelled Sokah, which stood for the “Soul of Calypso” with the “kah” part being taken from the first letter in the Sanskrit alphabet, representing the power of movement as well as the East Indian rhythmic influence that helped to inspire the new beat. Shorty stated in a number of interviews that the idea for the new Soca beat originated with the fusion of Calypso with East Indian rhythms that he used in his 1972 hit “Indrani”. Soca solidified its position as the popular new beat adopted by most Trinidadian Calypso musicians by the time Shorty recorded his crossover hit “Endless Vibrations” in 1974.
In 1975, Shorty recorded an album entitled “Love in the Caribbean” that contained a number of crossover Soca tracks. During the subsequent promotional tour, Shorty stopped at the isle of Dominica and saw the top band there, Exile One, perform at the Fort Young Hotel. Shorty was inspired to compose and record a Soca and Cadence-lypso fusion track titled “E Pete” or “Ou Petit”, which was the first in that particular Soca style. Shorty consulted on the Creole lyrics he used in the chorus of his “E Pete” song with Dominica’s 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo, and two Creole lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron.
French Creole impact on Soca
The main source of Soca is Calypso developed in Trinidad in the 18th and 19th centuries from the West African Kaiso and canboulay music brought by enslaved Africans and Immigrants from the French Antilles to Trinidad to work on sugar plantations after the Cedula of Population of 1783 . The Africans brought to toil on sugar plantations, were stripped of many connections to their homeland and family. They used calypso to mock the slave masters and to communicate with each other. Many early calypsos were sung in French Creole by an individual called a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot became known as a chantuelle and eventually, calypsonian.
Modern calypso, however, began in the 19th century, a fusion of disparate elements ranging from the masquerade song lavway, French Creole belair and the calinda stick-fighting chantwell. Calypso’s early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including canboulay drumming and the music masquerade processions. The French brought Carnival to Trinidad, and calypso competitions at Carnival grew in popularity, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834.
The “father” of Soca was a Trinidadian named Garfield Blackman, who rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1964 hit “Cloak and Dagger” and who adopted the name “Ras Shorty I” in the early 1980s. He started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre. A prolific musician, composer and innovator, Shorty experimented with fusing Calypso and elements of Indo-Caribbean music after 1965 before debuting “the Soul of Calypso”, Soca music, in the early 1970s.
In 1975, Shorty recorded an album entitled “Love in the Caribbean” that contained a number of crossover Soca tracks. During the subsequent promotional tour, Shorty stopped at the isle of Dominica and saw the top band there, Exile One, perform at the Fort Young Hotel. Shorty was inspired to compose and record a Soca and Cadence-lypso fusion track titled “E Pete” or “Ou Petit”, which was the first in that particular Soca style. Shorty consulted on the Creole lyrics he used in the chorus of his “E Pete” song with Dominica’s 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo, and two Creole lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron.
Cadence-lypso is a fusion of cadence rampa from Haiti and calypso from Trinidad & Tobago that has also spread to other English speaking countries of the Caribbean. Originated in the 1970s by the Dominican band Exile One on the island of Guadeloupe, it spread and became popular in the dance clubs around the Creole world and Africa as well as the French Antilles.
In the French Antilles, Cadence-lypso evolved into Zouk as popularized by Kassav in the 1980s. Kassav’ was formed in 1979 by Pierre-Edouard Décimus (former musicians from the Les Vikings de Guadeloupe) and Paris studio musician Jacob Desvarieux. Together and under the influence of well-known Dominican, Haitian and Guadeloupean kadans or compas bands like Experience 7, Grammacks, Exile One, Les Aiglons, Tabou Combo, Les Freres Dejean, etc., they decided to make Guadeloupean carnival music recording it in a more fully orchestrated yet modern and polished style. This style of music had an impact on a certain style of Soca known as “Zouk Soca”, mostly produced in St.Lucia.
The nineties in Dominica have been dominated by a new musical form called bouyon music. The best-known band in the genre is Windward Caribbean Kulture (WCK), who originated the style in 1988 by experimenting with a fusion of Cadence-lypso and Jing ping. They began using native drum rhythms such as lapo kabwit and elements of the music of jing ping bands, as well as ragga-style vocals.
Bouyon influenced a certain style of Soca known as Bouyon soca. Bouyon soca typically blends old bouyon music rhythms from the 90s’ and soca music creating a unique style soca sound. The style of music was made more popular to the Caribbean region by the likes of the producer Dada and artists ASA from Dominica with collaborations from Trinidadian and St.Vincentian artists such as Skinny Fabulous, Bunji Garlin, Iwer George and Machel Montano. Hit songs featuring Bouyon flavored rhythms and sounds and familiar soca attributes include Famalay and Conch Shell.
Terminology
Soca simply means the ” (So)ul of (Ca)lypso”, however the name has nothing to do with American soul music, as Soca is rhythmically a fusion of African/Calypso and East Indian rhythms. Soca’s history is multi-faceted. Lord Shorty initially spelled his musical hybrid “sokah” and in a 1979 interview with Carnival Magazine stated that he “came up with the name soca. I invented soca. And I never spelt it s-o-c-a. It was s-o-k-a-h to reflect the East Indian influence.” The s-o-c-a spelling quickly became the popular spelling after a journalist, Ivor Ferreira, interviewed Shorty for an article that was published during the 1976 Trinidad Carnival season. The article was titled “Shorty is Doing Soca” and so s-o-c-a quickly became the popular spelling for this new modern style of Calypso music.